Beauty & lifestyle

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I have been MIA for a while in the blogging world since I was out on holiday 🙂 This year we headed over to Spain and spent 10 days travelling around the country. Spain has been on my to do list for a really long time and I was really happy to finally set foot there this November. We spent time in Madrid, Seville and Barcelona and did day trips to Cordoba and Toledo.

Out of all the places we visited, I think Madrid was my least favorite, primarily due to the weather. It was cold and wet which is not the best weather to be out and about exploring a city.We still managed to see the things we wanted like the royal palace, the mercat , the Prado museum, Retiro Park etc. We also managed to catch up with friends in Madrid which was so much fun 🙂

The best part about Spain was of course the food and drinks 😉

Churros and Chocolate anyone? 🙂

Seville was a charming city in the south of Spain with lovely weather. The sun was out and the temperature was just nice! We did go visit the Seville Cathedral which is huge ( it is the 2nd largest cathedral in the world) and quite frankly a bit overwhelming! The other star attraction we thoroughly enjoyed viewing was the Real Alcazar. Now, if you are a Game of Thrones fan, then you have pretty much stepped into the water gardens of Dorne 😀

A part of the Real Alcazar gardens

We also spent a day and a night in Granada to visit the UNESCO world heritage site, the Alhambra Palace. The architecture and the level of detail in the designs in the Nasrid Palace (inside the Alhambra) is quite something! I do recommend that you book your tickets online and a month or 2 in advance since they sell out real fast!

Intricate ceiling inside the Nasrid Palace

Our final stop was Barcelona and I loved the vibe of the city! The weather was amazing and we had awesome fresh seafood during our entire stay. We generally enjoyed strolling around the gothic quarter, checking out the Gaudi buildings and checked out the famous La Boqueria. We did enjoy our self guided audio tour of the Sagrada Familia which is synonymous with Barcelona.

La Boqueria- so colorful !

Overall, our trip was fantastic! I hope to go back to Spain again sometime to savor more of the Tapas and drink all the Sherry and Sangaria I can!!

I did do some damage to my wallet while in Spain, especially in Barcelona :D…so stay tuned for a haul post coming soon!!! Until next time…ciao!

Apologies for the lack of posts! It has been a very busy 2 weeks with travelling home, battling flu situations in the house and then a quick trip to Delhi! I was in Delhi, India for 4 days total..which is a shame since the place has so much to see, do and of course eat! I had accompanied the husband on a business trip and because he was so caught up with what he was in Delhi for, we barely saw anything 😦 Plus he was still recovering from the flu and he was tired after work related activities everyday so we did not explore areas too far way from where we stayed.

I tried to make the best use of my time there and did manage to go shopping 😉 and explore the local food scene. We stayed at a really nice part of the city at a guest house/hotel at The India Habitat Centre. The Lodhi Gardens which is a public park was walking distance from where we stayed and so I did spend a good amount of time there. The park houses the tombs of the Lodhi dynasty kings who ruled much before the Mughals.

The structures which house the tombs are quite impressive and the place was teeming with couples taking wedding photo shoots! The first structure that greets you upon entering the gardens is the Bara Gumbad.

The Bara Gumbad

The Bara Gumbad pictured above is a mosque and not a tomb. The facade inside the dome has largely worn off however some regions of the structure notably the area to the left with the smaller domes still has intricate inscriptions.

Inside the Mosque (Bara Gumbad)

Walking further into the gardens , there is a water canal with an ancient bridge build by Akbar the great (a Mughal ruler). The tomb of one of the Lodhi kings overlooks this water body. The structure housing his tomb was decorated with intricate tile work, traces of which you can still see.

Other places I saw include the India Gate and the city in general while commuting from one point to another. I did manage to do a teeny tiny bit of shopping at this place called Khan Market where I was thrilled to see an Innisfree shop! I will post my mini haul soon 🙂 Stay tuned for that!!

Overall, I enjoyed my really short stay in Delhi..hopefully the next time I travel to the city I will have more time to explore the older parts of the city!

It has been a while since I did a foto friday post! Today I am excited to share with you the outcome of a a recent egg-xperiment in the kitchen! I tried out Shakshuka which is basically an easy egg based dish from Israel/Tunisia. It looks yummy, tastes divine and it has the honor of entering in my comfort food list 🙂

Shakshuka!

I can eat this happily for breakfast/lunch/dinner any day with a slice of Challah bread!

I hope everyone has been having a great summer! I am trying to make the most of what is left of summer 🙂 2 weeks back I visited southern Maine and had an awesome time at the beaches there. For some reason I love lighthouses! We visited the Cape Neddick Lighthouse in York. It was a really nice sunny day and I was able to capture a lovely picture of this lighthouse !

Cape Neddick Lighthouse

Where all did you guys chill out this summer? Enjoy the rest of the summer everyone!!

Summer and spring is gardening time ! However, I don’t have the patience nor skills required to grow beautiful flowers in my yard. Last year I did get some confidence in gardening since I managed to grow stargazer lillies 🙂 This year I planted a packet of mixed seeds and the first flower bloomed a few days back! Unfortunately, I don’t have the seed packet with me anymore and being generally clueless about plant names, I have no idea what this lovely yellow flower is 😛

Its friday! the best day of the week! So today’s foto friday picture is one I clicked when I was out jogging at the park nearby. I was happy to see my good friend Mr.Swan is back 😀 Yup I really call him (I am assuming its a male) a friend and call him Mr. Swan. Seeing him swim about on the river near the jogging track is the highlight of my Jog anyday!

I thought I’d introduce something new to my blog…foto(yes foto instead of photo) fridays! On fridays I will post a pic or pics of anything fun I did the past week…it could be a makeup look or even something I made or a place I visited.

So for my first foto friday post I thought I would post a pic of the brioche bread I made this past week. This was my first time making Brioche and since I made it entirely by hand it was quite the challenge! If you want the recipe do let me know in the comments section! Have anyone of you guys made bread? Tell me all about it!